Reduce Exchange mailbox size

A user on a SBS server has a mailbox that keeps growing.

Although he deletes his old mails in Outlook, his exchange account is growing and growing and is now up to 1200 MB.
I know how to set the maximum size and so but I can't figure out why the deleted items are not 'really' deleted.

Who is Participating?

Well, then your XP Pro machines weren't done right either... the way that Exchange is configured on an SBS client workstation is that it's done automatically by SBS when you join the workstation to the domain with the http://<servername>/connectcomputer wizard. Since you can't do this with an XP Home machine, then most likely they are all not being managed at all by your domain group policies.

Most definitely the XP Home machine is not taking ANY direction from the domain because it can't. You need to be using XP Professional on all machines connected to your SBS.

For the XP Pro machines... in order to connect them properly and have SBS be able to configure Outlook as well as lots of other things (see http://sbsurl.com/connectcomputer for a list of everything), please follow these steps to correct:

At the client machine:
1. Log in with THAT machine's LOCAL administrator account.
2. Unjoin the domain into a WORKGROUP
3. Change the name of the computer (this is not an option, you must use a name that is unique and hasn't been used before on your SBS)
4. Delete or rename the following directory C:\Program Files\Microsoft Windows Small Business Server\Clients if it exists
5. Make sure that the network settings are configured to get an IP address automatically (DHCP enabled)
6. Reboot

Then on the server, from the Server Management Console:
1. Remove the client computers if it still shows in the Client Computer screen on the Server Management Console
2. Add the client with it's NEW name using the Add Computer wizard

Then, go back to the client machine, log back in with the local Administrator account and join the domain by opening Internet Explorer and navigating to http://servername/connectcomputer

Deleted items are actually stored for an additional set amount of time based on the "Deleted Item Retention" setting on your server. This is a very handy tool for most people because it allows users to go back and get messages they accidently deleted.

Well, how many calendar items are there? (such as holidays?) how many contacts? Mailboxes do not just contain email messages, and since your inital question mentioned the actual size instead of number of items, I wonder what the actual size is now?

Jeff
TechSoEasy

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T00NAuthor Commented: 2006-10-29

To be precise: 1.344.323 KB

Outlook Calender isn't being used and I think they have about 200 persons in their contact list.

I think the problem is that the mailbox keeps all messages and not just the ones from the last two days.

Well, just note that if you set Deleted Item Retention to 48 hours it can take up to 71 hours for them to be removed:

Per the KB article:

"In this example, if you delete a message at 8:00 A.M., the message does not become a candidate for hard deletion for 48 hours. The next information store maintenance procedure is scheduled to finish at 6 A.M., so the message is not hard deleted (the record is not removed) for 71 hours. "

Jeff
TechSoEasy

0

T00NAuthor Commented: 2006-10-30

OK, I'll wait a couple of days but I have a hard time believing this is the solution.

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T00NAuthor Commented: 2006-11-13

Nope, didn't work.

Can it have something to do with the fact that that particular pc is running on XP home instead of professional?

Not only the future... but the ones they currently have should be upgraded. Using XPHome is not a secure environment. Since you can't control the machine, you can't stop viruses from propagating from those machines. You also can't stop them from getting spyware, or malware or monitor them for things like keyloggers, etc. On top of that... of course, whoever is using these machines cannot be nearly as productive as someone with an XP Pro machine who's fully integrated into the network.

There are LOTS of cleaver things about SBS which makes it incredibly valuable... if you take the time to learn about those features... you'll be able to spend a lot less time troubleshooting, and maintaining... and more time showing folks how to be more productive with their investment!

For the XP Pro machines... in order to connect them properly and have SBS be able to configure Outlook as well as lots of other things (see http://sbsurl.com/connectcomputer for a list of everything), please follow these steps to correct:

The XP Pro pc's should be fine because I added them to the network with the connectcomputer wizard?